Great Scene: “Saving Private Ryan”

Captain Miller finally reveals what his job is back home in a scene which is considerably different than an early draft of the script.

IMDb plot summary: Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Written by Robert Rodat.

Setup: There has been a running bet among the Second Rangers soldiers, taking guesses as to what Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) does for a living back home. In the run-up to this scene, the soldiers are pissed off. Two of their men have been killed in combat while they are stuck on a mission to find Private Ryan, who they do not know, and escort him to safety. They don’t understand the mission, they don’t want the mission, they’d rather be fighting the war and killing German soldiers. The tension gets to the point where two soldiers draw guns on each other. That’s when Miller intervenes.

Here is Miller’s monologue:

I’m a schoolteacher. I teach English composition… in this little town called Adley, Pennsylvania. The last eleven years, I’ve been at Thomas Alva Edison High School. I was a coach of the baseball team in the springtime. Back home, I tell people what I do for a living and they think well, now that figures. But over here, it’s a big, a big mystery. So, I guess I’ve changed some. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve changed so much my wife is even going to recognize me, whenever it is that I get back to her. And how I’ll ever be able to tell her about days like today. Ah, Ryan. I don’t know anything about Ryan. I don’t care. The man means nothing to me. It’s just a name. But if… You know if going to Rumelle and finding him so that he can go home. If that earns me the right to get back to my wife, then that’s my mission. You want to leave? You want to go off and fight the war? All right. All right. I won’t stop you. I’ll even put in the paperwork. I just know that every man I kill the farther away from home I feel.

Compare the movie version of the scene to a scripted version from an earlier draft. It’s markedly different.

EXT. BRIDGE - NIGHT

Dark. Quiet. The distant guns are silent for once.

Waiting. Reiben, Upham, Jackson, Ryan and Miller
have tightened their perimeter.

Miller is in a trance. The others glance at him
nervously.

They eat in silence. K-rations. Some bread. A last
supper.

Then, from out of nowhere, Miller speaks:

MILLER
English teacher, Addley, Pennsylvania.

Slowly, Miller's men turn to him.

UPHAM
What'd you say, Captain?

MILLER
I teach English at Addley High School
in Addley, Pennsylvania.

REIBEN
Well, I'll be goddamned, I knew it.

JACKSON
Like hell, you did.

UPHAM
Captain, what about our deal?

MILLER
I changed my mind.

REIBEN
What deal?

MILLER
I coach the baseball team, too.

JACKSON
No kiddin'?

REIBEN
What deal?

UPHAM
Forget it.

They all sit in silence.

MILLER
You know that cruise ship Wade's
grandfather was on?

They all nod, except Ryan who doesn't know what
Miller's talking about.

MILLER
(continuing)
I wonder if his cabin is still
available?

REIBEN
That's not where I am. Miller No?
Where are you?

REIBEN
I'm in a dressing room with Mrs.
Rachel Troubowitz, our super's wife.
She's an easy forty-four, double E,
but I've convinced her she's a thirty-
eight D and I'm watching her try and
squeeze herself into a side-stay,
silk-ribboned, three-panel girdle
with s Helf-lift brassiere.
(smiles)
She's having a devil of a time,
getting into that thing.

They all share Reiben's dream for a moment. Then
Jackson smiles.

JACKSON
Me? I'm walking with my hound, Lucy,
it's about an hour 'fore sunrise and
we're out huntin' coon. I got me a
flask of pure Kentucky mash whiskey...

REIBEN
Jackson, how many times I got to
tell you, you're from Tennessee.

JACKSON
I am, but I like imported whiskey.
So there I am and I hear the biggest
ole' coon you ever did hear, 'a
rustlin' right there in front of me.
That ole' boy comes right out of the
brush, I got a clear shot and he
knows he's 'bout to meet his maker.
I aim, I got my finger tight on the
trigger and then I just smile and
say to that ole' coon, go on, now,
you get out 'a here. Then I sit
down on a hollow log and take me a
right long pull a' that mash whiskey.

Upham smiles.

UPHAM
I don't know, I kind of like Wade's
idea about the cruise ship. I've
never been to Tahiti.

REIBEN
What about you, Captain?

Miller smiles. He knows exactly where he is.

MILLER
I'm in my backyard, lying in my
hammock, with my arm around my wife,
listening for the sound of breaking
glass.

JACKSON
Say what, Cap'n?

MILLER
You see, I've got the best house in
all of Addley. It's not the biggest
house, but it's got the best location,
right next to the junior high baseball
field. The garage windows face left
field. The guy who owned the house
before me had these heavy screen S
put over them. The first thing I
did when I bought the place was take
off those screens. Two-hundred-twenty-
two yards from home plate to my garage
windows. It takes a hell of a junior
high kid to hit a ball that far. I
look at my garage windows as a
Motivator and a way to scout the
kids coming up, the ones who are
going to give us a shot at the state
championship. I lay there in my
hammock and every time I hear the
sound of breaking glass, I know we're
one step closer to winning it all.

JACKSON
Don't that get kind of expensive,
Cap'n?

MILLER
It's worth it.

Key differences:

• The movie version has Miller revealing his background in a moment of heightened conflict making for much better drama. He uses the details of his life back home to defuse a potentially violent situation.
• The focus stays on Miller. That way his character controls the scene as opposed to the energy being dissipated between several characters.
• Also this: Private Ryan is NOT present in the movie scene. As opposed to Ryan swapping talk with the other soldiers, by keeping him absent, the character remains this intangible apparition. That only elevates the irony and seeming futility of their mission. They are going through all of this shit for a guy they have yet to find.
• Finally there’s this: Miller reveals his real motivation — rescue Private Ryan and return him to safety so he (Miller) can get back home to his wife.

The movie version is by all standards a much better scene, a great one in my view.

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